Undesirable insects such as ants may be controlled or eliminated by positioning poison or bait within reach of the insects. For safety and convenience, an individual dose of bait is often packaged in a housing which provides insects with access to the bait while minimizing user contact with the poison. When the housing is positioned in an insect infested area, the insects are attracted to the poison within the housing.
One example of such an insect bait device includes a metal stake and a metal cup which has been filled with an application of poison and secured to the stake. The metal bait device may be deployed in the garden or outside of a building by pushing the metal stake into soil or other ground materials. The device may also be positioned in the infested area by lying the device on hard surfaces such as concrete, decks, floors, cupboard shelves, countertops, etc. With the metal stake, the metal bait device may be conveniently used indoors and outdoors to control or eliminate undesirable insects.
Forming the stake and poison retaining cup of metal provides a strong, durable, long-lasting insect bait device. However, plastic materials have various properties or characteristics which would be of particular advantage in insect bait assemblies. Using plastic materials would allow the device to be efficiently molded to the desired shape. The bait device may have the poison-retaining reservoir monolithically formed with the body of the device instead of the cap, minimizing potential human contact with the poison during manufacture and assembly of the device. The molded device would have smooth edges and would be substantially rust resistant. Furthermore, the molded device may be configured to facilitate the automatic filling of the device with poison or bait and/or the automatic assembly of the device.
Accordingly, an insect bait assembly which has a poison-retaining reservoir monolithically formed with the support body is highly desirable. Similarly, an insect bait assembly which may be formed of a plastic material is highly desirable. A plastic bait assembly which is as strong, durable and long lasting as a comparable metal device is also desirable. An insect bait device which may be configured for automatically filling and assembling the device is also highly desirable. In addition, an insect bait assembly which may be molded with smooth or rounded edges would be particularly useful.
A primary object of the invention, therefore, is to provide an insect bait assembly which includes a one-piece body having a reservoir for holding an application of poison and a support body.
A further object of the invention is to provide an insect bait assembly which may be molded of plastic.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an insect bait assembly which is configured to facilitated the automatic filling of the assembly with an application of insect bait.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an insect bait device which is configured to facilitate the automatic assembly of the device.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a plastic bait assembly which is as strong, durable and long lasting as a bait assembly formed of metal.
A more general object of the present invention is to provide an insect bait assembly which may be efficiently molded to the desired shape and economically manufactured, and which has smooth edges and is substantially rust resistant.
The apparatus of the present invention has other objects and features of advantage which will become apparent from and are set forth in more detail in the description of the Best Mode Of Carrying Out The Invention and the accompanying drawings.